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Grant Thornton Flexes PE Muscle in CBIZ Deal
The biggest bank account wins.
By CPA Trendlines Research
If the Grant Thornton deal for CBIZ suggests the next stage of accounting firm consolidation, then size alone, as measured in top firm rankings, is no longer the decisive advantage.
MORE Fatal Attraction: How the Marcum Deal Set Up CBIZ for the Grant Thornton Takeover MORE Private Equity
Instead, capital that can be deployed – repeatedly — into acquisitions, technology and integration is today’s essential ingredient. READ MORE →
Blake Carroll: The CPA Exam Isn’t Testing How Smart You Are | Accounting Conversations
PwC consultant and CPA exam coach says success depends less on being the smartest person in the room and more on managing time, building effective habits, and continuing after setbacks.
Sponsored by Radical Pricing by the Radical CPA, Jody Padar | See Today’s Special Offer
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Accounting Conversations
With Chayton Farlee
Center for Accounting Transformation
The greatest obstacle standing between most CPA candidates and their licenses is not intelligence. It is time. That distinction matters, says Blake Carroll, CPA, a deployment consultant with PwC who helps aspiring CPAs develop the plans, habits, and mindsets they need to pass the exam.
“I truly believe anyone can pass it,” Carroll tells host Chayton Farlee on the Accounting Conversations podcast. “It’s not a test of intelligence. It is a test of endurance.”
MORE Center for Accounting Transformation | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network
In the episode, Carroll and Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen, explore what makes the exam so difficult — and why the skills candidates develop while preparing for it can continue serving them long after they earn their licenses.
Fatal Attraction: How the Marcum Deal Set Up CBIZ for the Grant Thornton Takeover
CBIZ Grows 52%. Then Growth Stalls, Stock Falls, GT Moves In.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Marcum made CBIZ bigger almost overnight. It also quadrupled the debt, more than tripled interest expense, and left executives figuring their best option was Grant Thornton’s $5-billion buyout offer.
MORE Private Equity MORE Grant Thornton Flexes PE Muscle in CBIZ Deal
CBIZ entered 2026 looking like one of accounting’s great consolidators. Revenue had risen 52.1% in 2025 to $2.758 billion, and net income had increased 181.3% to $115.4 million.
And yet, by July 28, the company is ready to take $55 per share, better than the $46.70 the day before, but less than the $88.65 peak last year.
Ryan Bunn, the activist shareholder at Reference Equity, which had been pressing the company since mid-June to raise equity and keep buying firms, says the decision “feels like capitulation.”
The arithmetic underneath the growth may help explain why.
CPA PE Deal Tracker™: The Consolidator Gets Consolidated
The month culminates with $5 billion CBIZ – Grant Thornton deal as flow drops 47%.
By CPA Trendlines Research
CBIZ spent years buying firms before agreeing to be bought itself on July 29 by Grant Thornton for $5 billion.
The biggest deal ever comes as the deal flow slows, but the deals get bigger.
MORE Private Equity
The CPA Trendlines CPA PE Deal Tracker™ records nine institutionally backed acquisitions in July, down from 17 a year earlier. The rolling 12-month institutional transaction count falls from a record 230 in March to 225 in April, 223 in May, 215 in June and 207 in July.
Erin Pohan: How to Help Your Clients Understand Accounting | The Disruptors
Connect with your clients: “You’re an entrepreneur, I’m an entrepreneur.”
Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil
The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
Erin Pohan’s firm, Upkeeping, is on a mission “to make accounting relevant and understandable” to all its clients. Pohan describes Upkeeping as “a tax-ready firm” that does everything but tax prep, which they hand off to the clients’ tax professionals. But their hand-off doesn’t stop with providing the tax pro with the information needed for the tax return.
“We don’t believe in just handing pieces of paper over to our clients and letting them run with it,” she explains. “We do work with them throughout the year. We do our client calls where we’re explaining the numbers and the stories behind the numbers, especially, and making sure that they feel equipped and empowered to understand their business finances.”